Wednesday, October 14, 2009

School of Medicine of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University (UGM) ranks 103rd

Slamet Susanto , The Jakarta Post , Yogyakarta | Wed, 10/14/2009 4:41 PM | National

The School of Medicine at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) has again improved its world ranking by three places to sit at 103rd, a survey has revealed.

The Times Higher Education Survey (THES) QS World University Rankings 2009 , Life Sciences and Biomedicine category surveyed 1,000 medical faculties around the world and published its results last Friday.

The University of Indonesia's (UI) School of Medicine and that of Airlangga University rank 126th and 224th.

Dean of the School of Medicine at UGM Ali Ghufron Mukti said Wednesday that his office had upgraded its management system to increase the quality of all lecturers, students and other related staff over the past three years.

“We expect this achievement will contribute to UGM's efforts to become a world-class university,” he said.

Teaching college aims to raise education standards

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 10/08/2009 11:42 AM | National

Seventeen-year-old Sufyan Suri could not hide his enthusiasm when he spoke of his dream to become a teacher.

The high school graduate from Kotabaru, South Kalimantan, leaned forward and used hand gestures to emphasize Indonesia's need for more skilled teachers and to redefine its teacher-student relationship.

"There is a gap between teachers and students that restricts them from effectively communicating with each other," he told The Jakarta Post at the Sampoerna School of Education college in Jakarta on Wednesday. "We need to change this.

"Students should feel comfortable approaching their teachers."

Sufyan and 88 other students, all from underprivileged families, were granted scholarships yesterday from Indonesia's first private teachers college.

Forty-three students received full scholarships worth more than Rp 223 million (US$23,000) each. The remaining 46 were granted scholarships that covered their tuition fees for four years, worth Rp 168 million each.

The students were selected out of 1,200 applicants to major in mathematics or English at the undergraduate institution. Seventy-one students were from Java, 14 from Sumatra, two from Bali and two from Kalimantan.

Paulina Pannen, the school's dean, said she wanted to ensure students were provided with the skills to become highly qualified teachers, exceeding international standards.

The school has teamed up with Iowa University in the US, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and Massey University in New Zealand to develop its curriculum.

"We encourage our students to research and develop innovative teaching methodologies," she said.

The school has been structured to qualify students as senior high school teachers. To aid their learning, the school requires students to complete an internship, teaching in high schools for one semester in their final year.

"Our students will teach in one of the 17 state senior high schools and five Madrasah *Muslim schools* that the Sampoerna Foundation supports," she said.

The foundation, established by tobacco giant PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna, has been providing schools with assistance to improve teacher quality through its United Schools Program.

Muchlas, from the Directorate of Higher Education at the National Education Ministry, said he hoped the school would enhance education in each of Indonesia's regions.

"I would like to see the school's graduates return to their respective regions to improve education across the country," he added.

Paulina said she strongly encouraged her students to apply their knowledge in their hometowns. She said that was where teachers were needed because schools in cities had "relatively adequate facilities" and many skilled teachers.

"Sampoerna graduates will be great assets to their regions because they are being trained to become highly skilled teachers," she added.

Sufyan said he looked forward to teaching in his hometown.

"We must give back to our communities and help them to prosper," he said. (adh)

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Teachers are Encouraged to Conduct Research

Excerpt:
Teachers who have got their professional certification and benefit are encouraged to conduct research and attend training programs on teaching methodology and material development to further enhance their professional development. Such a policy, which aims at monitoring and improving teachers' quality, will be implemented after the certification process is completed.

Guru Diarahkan Adakan Penelitian
Upaya Meningkatkan Kualitas Setelah Sertifikasi

Sabtu, 10 Oktober 2009 | 03:59 WIB

Jakarta, Kompas - Untuk meningkatkan kualitas tenaga pendidik, guru yang sudah memperoleh sertifikasi dan tunjangan guru akan tetap dipantau. Pemantauan termasuk juga pemberikan pelatihan metode pengajaran, materi pengajaran, dan melakukan penelitian.

Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Bambang Sudibyo menilai perlu ada kebijakan yang mendorong guru dan dosen untuk mengembangkan diri dengan melakukan penelitian. ”Pelan-pelan dirumuskan sambil menunggu proses sertifikasi selesai,” kata Bambang Sudibyo seusai meresmikan perluasan perpustakaan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, Kamis (8/10).

Ketua Pengurus Besar Persatuan Guru Republik Indonesia (PGRI) Unifah Rosyidi, Jumat (9/10), mengingatkan perlunya pengawasan kinerja guru.

”Peningkatan mutu dan profesionalisme guru tidak boleh berhenti pada program sertifikasi. Kepala sekolah juga bisa memperketat rekomendasi kenaikan pangkat jika kinerja guru tidak maksimal,” katanya.

Perlu dorongan

Rektor Universitas Indonesia Prof Dr Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri mengingatkan komitmen meningkatkan kualitas guru tidak bisa hanya mengandalkan tekad pribadi saja, tetapi juga perlu ada dorongan dari sekolah dan pemerintah.

”Sertifikasi itu tidak cukup hanya tes evaluasi, tetapi tetap harus ada pelatihan rutin sehingga akan terlihat kekuatan dan kelemahan masing-masing,” ujar Gumilar.

Gumilar mengusulkan ada semacam pemberian penghargaan dan sanksi hukuman (reward and punishment) yang jelas terhadap guru. Secara bertahap guru diawasi oleh kepala sekolah dan kepala sekolah diawasi oleh pengawas sekolah.

Senior Consultant Putera Sampoerna School of Education, S Gopinathan, mengatakan, meningkatkan kualitas guru antara lain dengan menciptakan tradisi penelitian. Berbagai persoalan seputar pendidikan tidak kunjung jelas karena minimnya penelitian kependidikan. ”Selama ini sebagian besar tenaga pendidik hanya memusatkan perhatian pada peningkatan kemampuan mengajar saja,” ujarnya.

Padahal tenaga pendidik harus tahu masalah yang dihadapi anak didik. (LUK/ELN)

Friday, October 9, 2009

University of Indonesia Ranks 201 of World's 500 Best Universities

Excerpt:
The University of Indonesia (UI) is ranked 201 out of 500 world's best universities by Times Higher Education-QS World University Ranking or THESS this year, up 86 points from last year's 287. This new rank puts UI as one of the elite universities in Asia (rank 34) and one of the best universities in ASEAN (rank 5).

IEI - 9 October 2009

UI Capai Peringkat Ke-201 Dunia
Jumat, 9 Oktober 2009 | 04:18 WIB

Jakarta, Kompas - Lembaga pembuat peringkat perguruan tinggi (Times Higher Education-QS World University Ranking atau THESS) menyatakan bahwa Universitas Indonesia menduduki peringkat ke-201 dari 500 universitas terbaik di dunia.

”Ini pencapaian yang luar biasa. Pada tahun lalu UI berada di peringkat ke-287 dan tahun 2007 peringkat ke-395,” kata Rektor UI Prof Dr Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri, Kamis (8/10).

Dari hasil survei THESS terhadap 5.000 perguruan tinggi di dunia, berarti kini UI masuk dalam jajaran universitas elite di Asia (peringkat ke-34) dan ASEAN (peringkat ke-5). Penilaian THESS antara lain berdasarkan indikator performa dalam bidang riset dan publikasi, pengajaran, penginternasionalan, dan performa lulusan dalam kaitan dengan penyerapan tenaga kerja.

Seiring dengan naiknya peringkat UI, lanjut Gumilar, jumlah publikasi penelitian nasional dan internasional yang dilakukan peneliti UI naik dari 9.050 publikasi pada tahun 2008 menjadi 10.050 publikasi pada 2009. Pada kurun waktu yang sama jumlah peneliti UI naik dari 937 menjadi 1.005 peneliti. (LUK)

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Thursday, October 1, 2009

Govt mulls over asking students to take more graduation exams

This article was originally published at The Jakarta Post.

Thu, 10/01/2009 11:31 AM | National

The government is considering whether to put in place more exams for students graduating from high and junior high schools, to assess their physical skills and behavior.

Secretary of the directorate general of elementary and secondary education at the National Education Ministry, Bambang Indriyanto, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the ministry would test students across the country on subjects such as religion, sports and the arts, once the implementation of the national examinations ran smoothly.

"I hope we can do that in the next term," he said, referring to the next five-year period.

The 2005 regulation on national education standardization stipulates that five groups of subjects taught in school must be treated with the same level of importance when determining whether a student has passed the national exams.

The five groups are religion and morality, citizenship and character, science and technology, the arts, as well as sports and health.

So far, only subjects from the science and technology group are tested in the national exams.

Aside from Indonesian, mathematics and English exams taken in high school, junior high school students must also take a natural sciences exam.

Senior high students taking natural sciences classes are also required to pass physics, chemistry and biology exams. Those enrolled in social sciences classes must take economy, sociology and geography exams.

Experts have long criticized the concept and implementation of the national exams, saying it only assesses students' cognitive skills.

National education should not only shape students into knowledgeable individuals, but it should also give them a broad sets of soft skills and a good character, experts argue.

Noted education expert Arief Rachman said the country still needed a national exam. However, the government "had been mistaken in determining the passing criteria", he added. "They should not set the same minimum score for every school in the country. Every school has its own strengths and the government should take into consideration students' varying levels across schools in different regions."

The national exams require all students score an average of 5.5 to graduate.

He said forcing students to pass with a certain score only led them to cheat.

"But if their assessment was based on an average score in their own regions, we could minimize the cheating," he said.

Arief added that the national exams should never be used as a means to determine a school's level and quality.

The ministry, Bambang said, was using students' scores in the national exams to assess the quality of the schools across the country.

"We classify them according to their quality," he added.

The schools, he said, will be categorized into three levels: minimum service standard schools, national standard schools and international standard schools. (adh)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Larger education spending increases corruption: ICW

The Jakarta Post | Mon, 09/14/2009 10:19 AM | National

On Friday, the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) reported 142 graft cases, which allegedly took place at various institutions within the national education sector between 2004 and 2008, to the KPK for further monitoring and investigation.

“We want the [Corruption Eradication Commission] to monitor graft cases being tried at district courts and the legal processing of many cases that has remained stagnant, and also to investigate many cases in regions that have gained little attention from the general public,” ICW researcher Febri Hendri said after handing over a report on the 142 cases to the commission.

The cases were worth a total of Rp 243 billion and implicated 287 individuals, mostly public officials and school principals, Febri said. He cited numerous forms of graft in the sector such as the imposition of illegal fees, school construction projects markups, bribes to teachers and school principals.

Febri also urged the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and students’ parents to play more active roles in fighting increasing corruption in the education sector, in line with the recent increases to education spending.

Education is a large and important sector that the general public should monitor, he said, adding that the education sector had become a fertile ground for corruption since it was allocated a larger budget by the state government.

“Power abuses have been rampant not only at the National Education Ministry but also in provincial and regency/municipal administrations under regional autonomy,” Febri said.

Numerous power abuses and graft cases had remained unexposed because law enforcers and relevant stake holders had not paid enough attention to the sector, Febri said.

Separately Lody Paat, the coordinator of the Education Coalition, said the KPK could help reduce corruption by putting corruptors behind bars.

However, only transparent processes in designing budgets and keeping accounts open to inspections by students’ parents could really prevent power abuses and red tape in the sector, Lody said.

“I believe parents, teachers, principals, and other stakeholders must make budget plans together for schools and supervise implementation. They should be able to take part in educational budget planning from national to local levels,” he said.

The coalition had carried out several pilot projects in Garut and Tangerang to teach parents how to make and scrutinize schools’ budgets and accounts, Lody said.

Since 2003, the National Education Ministry has proclaimed school-based management that theoretically allows anyone to acquire schools’ budget reports, Febri said. “But, if you try to get these reports, many schools will not hand over this information,” he said.

Under school-based management, school committees, which include students’ parents and school staff, should plan for and scrutinize schools’ budget spending.

However, in most cases committees had not managed their education budgets effectively since most parents did not know how to scrutinize schools’ budget reports, said Jumono from the Students’ Parents Alliance for Education. (mrs)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Primary students lack interest in natural sciences

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 08/06/2009 11:22 AM | National

Eleven-year-old Ghina Ramadhani delighted in an experimental display at a science exhibition in Jakarta on Wednesday, jumping on and off a mat wired to a showerhead, turning it on and off in the process.

However, the sixth grader from a school in Tangerang, Banten, maintained that she did not “have much interest in the natural sciences”.

“I’m not that keen on studying nature; I get goose bumps whenever I see organs or bugs.”
She prefers the more “daunting” subjects, such as mathematics, because it “requires me to wrack my brains, which is fun”.

Ghina says she loves puzzles, and loves solving them even more. The natural sciences, she says, are less puzzling than mathematics.

The National Education Ministry has become concerned in recent years by the fact that fewer people are taking their university degrees in natural sciences, making it harder for Indonesia to compete globally in agriculture and other related sectors and raising concerns over the absence of competent people to maintain the country’s natural resources.

It seems, however, that the lack of interest in studying natural sciences actually starts early on. Ghina is not the only primary student to find little challenge in the natural sciences.

Steven Kasemetan from a school in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, says he dislikes the subject because “all I have to do is read the books and memorise them”.

“It’s no fun,” the sixth grader says, adding his school rarely allowed the students to experiment.

Slamet, a teacher from state elementary school SDN Menteng 02, said students were easily bored if the teachers were only giving them theories without showing them how the theories apply in their daily lives.

“When students can associate, for example, how water flows with their daily showers, they will understand better and faster,” he told The Jakarta Post.

The problem with teaching natural sciences these days, Slamet said, was that it included little creativity.

Teachers, he added, sometimes failed to provide a way for their students to see the fun side of the subject, whether by engaging them in experiments or playing games.

During his 12 years of teaching not only has he employed those two methods, but he also lets his students conduct small research projects.

Moreover, his method includes an interactive computer-based program that allows students to learn their lessons while playing games.

“Some of my students also build their own experiments using used materials,” said Slamet, who is also a counselor for his fellow teachers in the natural sciences.

He added he would also take his students on walks around the school complex, which has around 7,000 different kinds of plants growing.

On Wednesday, his school’s booth was rated the best, based on its creativity, display and interactivity, by a panel of judges at the exhibition“If the teachers are creative, the students will be too,” he said. (adh)